Knowing too many killed for being a reporter

But when I learned freelance journalist James Foley was executed Tuesday as retribution for United States actions in Iraq, it made me sick to my stomach.

In my capacity as an editor of small daily newspaper, I consider myself isolated from so many of the dangers many journalists face. Yet James Foley is the third reporter who has been killed covering stories in dangerous situations with whom I have had a connection.

Nick Blake was shot and killed, and his body burned. Daniel Pearl was mutilated and beheaded. And, as we learned Wednesday, James Foley was beheaded.

Some of our longtime readers may recall Blake's name.

Nick worked for us in the early 1980s and was like a lot of other entry-level reporters Foster's has had over the years: Young, aggressive, hard-working and with a winning personality. He did his share of learning with us and, typical of many young reporters, he wanted to work on a larger landscape to make more of a difference in the world.

In 1985 he had made his way to Guatemala. While attempting to gain an interview with the leaders of a guerrilla army in that war-shattered country, he was captured and killed.

It was not the guerrillas who killed him. It was soldiers of the Guatemalan Army, who had detained Nick and a freelance photographer with whom he was traveling. For reasons that remain unexplained to this date despite numerous investigations, there has been no revelation as to why the pair was shot and killed by government forces.

We learned from Nick's brother Sam, some of the details of the search for Nick by his family as well as the intense political pressure they put on U.S. and Guatemalan politicians to explain what happened. Sam contacted me shortly after he and others who had persisted in searching for Nick's body finally found his remains.

Sam said Nick's body, sometime after his death, had been burned in a pile along with the photographer in an effort to cover up the incident.

Sam uncovered his brother's remains while digging at a site they were tipped off was the location where the bodies were burned. He realized he had found his brother when he dug up a pair of glasses that belonged to Nick.

In the late 1990s, Sam wrote a compelling story for Foster's Sunday Citizen on his family's search for his brother and the government coverups.

Daniel Pearl was someone I had met, according to my friends in North Adams, Mass., at various get-togethers during my periodic visits to North Adams, Mass., in the mid-1980s. At that time, Daniel was a reporter for the North Adams Transcript and then the Berkshire Eagle In Pittsfield. I had worked as editor of the Transcript from 1977 to 1981 before moving to Foster's.

I can't say I knew Daniel well, but he and his wife, Mariane, were best friends with a my former co-worker and longtime best friend, Nick Noyes.

Mariane was five months pregnant when Daniel was killed. Four months later their son, Adam, was born.

The intense suffering of his wife, family and close friends such as Nick Noyes, was heartbreaking while Daniel was missing. It was so much worse when the video of Daniel's beheading was released.

In a summary of the events on Wikipedia, it is recounted that Daniel was on assignment with The Wall Street Journal in Pakistan on January 23, 2002. On that date, he was kidnapped by members of the Muslim group, the National Movement for the Restoration of Pakistani Sovereignty.

The group declared Daniel a spy, and demands were made to the United States that if not met, would result in Daniel's death. Nine days later, reports indicated Daniel's throat was slit and he was beheaded. It was not until mid-May that his “severed head and decomposed body were found in ten pieces, and buried ....”

It is reported that a Pakistani philanthropist secured the remains and returned them to his family in the United States. Daniel is now buried in Mount Sinai Memorial Park Cemetery in Los Angeles.

And now, James Foley. My connection to James is far less personal than to Nick Blake and Daniel Pearl. But the concern and worry has been a constant these past few years through our newspaper reporting.

It began with his first abduction while James was reporting in Libya in 2011 covering that country's civil war. In that incident, he was held for 44 days.

Despite no personal connection, James' parents are local and that means we — the news staff — thought of them often. I have an associate who is close to the family and I would periodically hear of how difficult were their days when James was first abducted ... and how devastated they were when he was kidnapped again.

Now, after two years of waiting and wondering, comes this tragedy.

And, as with the Pearl family and friends, the Foleys are now subjected to the hideous video spectacle of a loved one executed by extremists who care not that James had no agenda but to report the news.

I often tell future reporters in classrooms or in their interviews for jobs that two things are often forgotten when people think about being a journalist:

One is that they are creating a record of history, be it of a local or international community. That is a tremendous responsibility not often taken as seriously as it should be.

Second, it takes courage to be a reporter.

Reporters at all levels have to stand up for what they are doing in representing a free press. They have to face down those who would try to keep them from doing their jobs. They have to deal with situations that some do not want made public. They have to push for the truth when the truth is the last thing some want told.

Day-in and day-out there is the possibility that they will be involved in one confrontation after another. In order to tell their stories, reporters are often in the middle of tragedies or dramatic events in ways no one else will be.

Perhaps most importantly, reporters have to have the courage to take the responsibility for what they report.

Some reporters, such as Nick Blake, Daniel Pearl, James Foley and many, many other journalists throughout history with whom I've had no connection, make the ultimate sacrifice. Not just for the craft and profession of journalism, but for you and your freedom.